NanoMania
by gentlemen genocide machine
Summary: something close to a passion project. pulled out of his normal life, Kieran must now weather the trials and foes ahead. in this world you either adapt or die
1. chapter 1

machine genesis

a sprawling lush forest.

a serene silence ruined by his frantic running, a man in casual attire which comprised of a white shirt, black jacket, jeans and black and white shoes raced through this place of wood and life glancing black regularly behind himself to catch a glimpse at his assailant.

stumbling, he quickly hid behind a tree and crouched he began to breathe heavily due to the adrenaline levels in his body returning to normal, he peeked his head slightly and looked around.

he clutched at was once his left arm now a ravaged mess, everything below the bicep gone and slumped down, his safety monetarily assured he looked to his wound unsure of how he would deal with this.

his thoughts however were halted by the small movements he saw.

coming from the stump of his arm, muscle both damaged and worn twitching and moving in unnatural ways, he saw as cables extended twisting and snaking their way down ending in a crudely formed hand and arm which soon was covered by 'bone' or what his body passed as bone, the metal liquid moved down the limb completely covering the steel strings as it defined the bone structure of the arm, then as if they were apart of some macabre orchestra the seemingly 'alive' musculature soon wrapped and twisted and spiraled down,around the 'bone' a skinless new arm of black flesh that seemed to ignore his new boney digits, this too was soon covered by a metallic liquid forming a kind of second 'skin' which quickly too was covered by a more natural layer followed by the missing sleeve of his jacket.

he stared at what was once a problematic wound, now a new limb.

so, he sat there.curled up trying to make sense of everything that happened,why he was here,why could he regenerate and why.

why was there a vine wrapped around his arm?.

soon he found himself suspended in the air, his limbs bound by Vine's that snaked their way over his body lowering him to where they were connected to.

before him was a massive, bulbous plant.

and atop was a 'woman'.

her skin was green, and her body was covered in places by flora. atop her head was pale green hair that went past her shoulders adorned by a flower.

her red eyes looked at him with a depraved hunger that was made apparent by her horrific smile.

he struggled, trying to break free and run.

this only made her laugh, her voice a seductive poison spoiled by a deprived hunger for pleasure.

"my~, what an odd smell you have."

she spoke.

 _the goddamn_ _plant lady spoke._

the mixture of fear and confusing didn't help.

"y-you w-w-wouldn't w-want to eat me, probably tast l-like metal or something else bad" he stuttered out hoping she'd throw him away or something.

she brought him close.

 _and licked him._ "my~, what a _unique_ taste you have".

oh god.

this was it.

he regretted not aligning with a specific religion instead of believing in all of them.

the beast suddenly pulled him in.

the kiss was long and felt disgusting.

to his horror the massive bulb opened and worse he was being lowered into it.

he flailed, screamed, anything that might help him escape.

"fuck!, fuck!, fuck!. fuck you!, you fucking green piece of muclh!".

this just made her laugh.

he was simply dropped in, scampering he tried to quickly crawl out but the walls that lined the inside of the plant were like a room smotherd in grease.

he gave up quickly, he faintly recalled a similar plant that used the same trick on flies.

and unfortunately he was the fly.

"ah!?" he pulled his hands up.

the flesh on his hands were half melted.

his face grew grim, his eyes widened.

and looked down.

the space was filling with acid.

he frantically tried to claw his way out even as the acid rose up to his chest, melting his flesh along the way

his mind was clouded by pain as the acid reached his shoulders, screaming from the pain of his slowly melting flesh which died out as it submerged his neck.

finally, he was completely submerged in the corrosive liquid blacking out from the pain.

the dryad smiled as she enjoyed her meal.

though she was disappointed that she couldn't have a little 'fun' with him.

she was unable to continue that train of thought due to a sudden pain in her lower half.

metal claws violently ripped it open.

she cried out from the pain.

her prey tore and ripped it's way out.

she trembled from the sudden evisoration and looked up to the thing standing over her.

it picked her up and violently shoved her head into the ground, repeating the process over and over again.

after a sufficient number of head to ground trauma, it slowly tore chunks out of her flesh.

once it had finished it dropped her to the ground, perhaps it grew bored with her. this was soon answered when it lazily swiped at her head, easily crushing her skull.

with that done the thing lingered before wandering off.

/0/

he found himself in a void.

he felt something underneath him, something that felt like...soft.

he opened his eyes.

looking down at him was a woman.

light purple skin, short dark purple hair along with long pointed ears.

golden eyes stared into blue one's.

"stay with me" her voice was soothing, letting him for a moment forget the pain.

 _metal bones and black flesh grasped the flailing dragons head, her talons clawing at the arm leaving momentary wounds._

 _it_ _was_ _disturbingly easy to crush -._

"kill for me" she gently caressed his face.

"why won't you die!?" _the_ _lizards sword cut off his arm, her strike was ultimately pointless as a new one grew in it's place._

 _the_ _attack may have burst every muscle in it's arm, but was all the more worth it after it broke her-._

she leaned close to him.

and whispered.

"love me".

/0/

"are you alright?".

he sat up against a tree in front of a burnt out fire.

he turned to the girl, dressed similar to a nun.

she looked in worry at the man, his lower body covered in strange clothes while his upper body was bare covered in a silver skin.

"these woods aren't save, their infested with monsters".

she walked up to him and knelt down checking if he was injured.

"really".

she held his arm up examining the odd coloured skin.

it was cold, the smell of metal with a smooth texture.

"oh!, i can't believe how rude I'm being. my name is Silvia, and you are?" Silvia asked him.

he looked at her with an odd expression, a small amount of silver hair fell from under her headwear and she quickly tucked it back under, there was a slight blush to her face as she looked away in embarrassment. he chuckled lightly.

"Kieran" he said a small smile on his face.

she stood up and grabbed the basket she was carrying.

"it's still early so we should be able to get back in time".

Kieran stood up and to her astonishment a 'normal' layer of skin flowed upwards and covered his upper body which was followed by a white shirtof clothing forming over his chest and biceps. a black and grey jacket formed soon after.

"convenient, right?" he noticed the awed look she was giving him.

"certainly, but we should bet going now".

and with that the two made their way.

/0/

"hey sil, what did you mean by 'still early'?".

the day had just reached the afternoon as Kieran and silvia walked through the forest.

she turned to him as the two continued to walk " there's a village nearby the forest, it's usually a day's walk back and forth" she answered.

"really?, who thought to build a village so close to a place like this".

"well, I've only heard stories about it but as they seem to agree on, during the age of the previous demon lord this forest was home to monsters that, unlike their kin, never bothered themselves with humans. and in some cases protected them if they traveled through the forest" silvia explained as they reached a hill.

"doesn't seem like that to me".

"yes, after the previous demon lord died a succubus became the current lord, after that the forest monsters became the opposite of their previous selves. killing, eating and butchering humans or monsters that enter" she continued somberly.

"what?, isn't that the norm everywhere else?" Kieran asked.

Silvia stopped which surprised him.

"no. in fact it's the exception. everywhere else there has never been a case of a monster killing a human.".

"really?" he couldn't believe that.

"yes".

a sudden gust of wind pulled his attention.

off in the distance Kieran saw a large village.

"is that it there?" he asked.

"I'm surprised at how much ground we've covered, well be back in no time" she seemed to brighten up simply from looking at, what he presumed to be, her home.

the duo made their way down the hill and on ward.

/0/

'four already' Kieran glanced at the digital clock that sat at the edge of his vision.

"say, Kieran how did you get here?. it's normally forbidden for anyone to enter".

he crossed his arms " hmm, well if i remember right, something hit me in the chest and next thing i know I'm in the middle of a forest" he explained.

"hmm, well how long have you been here?".

he stopped.

"Kieran?" she turned.

he stared off at something, terrified.

" y-yknow, a few days. maybe".

"are you alright, your hands-".

he suddenly realised his left hand was shaking.

"I'm fine. the village is close, right?" he interrupted her.

"an hour's walk, is something wrong?" Silvia was worried now, there were many who couldn't move on after a monster encounter.

"no. let's go".

Kieran still held his hand as he walk past her.

she caught up to him.

the two eventually made it.

the edge of the forest.

silvia walked past the remaining few trees and stopped.

"it's alright".

she turned to Kieran who stood under the shade of the tree's, looking down at the ground.

"i don't know what this forest did to you, but it's up to you and you alone to get past this".

she held out her hand to him.


	2. chapter 2

Machine Genesis

kieran and silvia entered the village.

it was still lively to his surprise, especially at this time of day.

"so where's your place?" he asked Silvia as the two walked past a vast array of house's.

he couldn't help but notice a few looks shot at his 'friend'.

"it's up ahead. how do you feel about soup for dinner?".

/0/

setting the empty bowl aside, Kieran looked up at the stain glass window from the pew he was sitting on.

the moonlight illuminated the glass art, depicted upon it was a strangely familiar image.

'her?' he thought, remembering that far off dream.

his thoughts were pushed aside as Silvia entered from a side door and walked over.

"that's the guest room prepared for you" she said as she approached him.

"hey Silvia, why do you live in a church?. don't you have a house?".

"well.." she started as she moved to sit next to him "this church belonged to my parents" she explained.

"we spent so much time and effort into making it that we couldn't simply leave it empty, so we lived here".

"then" she paused "the village was attacked".

"none saw it coming. for years no monster stepped foot outside of the forest, but...".

"Silvia, if you don't want to continue".

"no, it's fine" she interrupted him as she continued to recount the past.

"a group of monsters attacked, they...they killed. and killed. they kept killing until they grew bored of it".

"my parents..." she looked to the wooden floor as she remembered "my mother was among their first victims. my father hid me before going out to try and...do something to help".

this world.

"so, ever since I've been doing my best around the church. but, no matter how hard i prayed. no matter how many i helped. the gods didn't answer".

he couldn't understand it.

"maybe" he started.

"maybe the gods couldn't answer".

she turned to him.

"maybe, but not her" Silvia said as she looked at the stain glass window.

"her?" Kieran said as he followed where she was looking.

"yes, ever since she answered my prayer I've devoted myself to doing my best in her name".

he couldn't understand how any of this made sense.

kieran stood up "well, thanks for that and the meal. I'm go'n to bed" he said as he walked over to the guest room.

"it is late, i think I'll rest as well" Silvia said as she walked down to where her room was.

/0/

 _everything was hazy._

 _Kieran_ _looked around._

 _the familiar_ _sounds of traveling crowds and traffic came quickly to him, easing the little worry he had._

 _'so...it was a dream' he thought to himself as he began to move._ _though._

 _it was a odd sensation, he knew he was moving, he saw the swing of arms and lifting of legs._

 _but he_ _didn't_ feel _himself moving._

 _his surroundings began to blend._

 _he_ _turned around._

 _and was met with an alluring sight._

 _before him was a woman, the kind of woman a man would kill for._

 _"you seem lost" she said._

 _he tried to answer but his mouth was currently a tenth dimensional fractal._

 _ah, from her expression he wasn't the only one that noticed._

"i have t'give it to ya, this is some pretty good effort you've put into a dream.

their surroundings began to lose definition and shape, devolving into a miasma of colours.

there was no woman in front of him. rather no longer a illusion of one anyway.

instead, before Kieran was a centaur like creature. a nightmare,a type of monster that conduct's it's business through the use of dreams, her lower half had a lavender coat of fur and a white tail. her upper half wore a tattered purple cloak, a purple hood covered her head while some of her blue hair poked out along with her blue coated ears.

what caught his attention wasn't her distractingly large bust.

but the silver and gold syth in her hands that was almost as large as she was.

the two stood there among the ever shifting dreamscape, a school of small cartoonish whales flew between them constantly chanting "ayy" as they flew by.

"so..." Kieran started unsure how to proceed with this.

"u-uhm, how d-did you do that"

he was taken aback by how timidly she asked that and in such a shy way.

"let's just say, this isn't the first time someone's tried to mess with my head".

/0/

with a yawn Kieran rose to a new day.

hunched over, he left his bed and made his way towards the door.

opening it, he entered the next room and found Silvia already up and making breakfast.

"Morning Kieran, how was your-" Silvia begun as she turned to him.

"what?".

"uh, w-well. y-your, uh. are you feeling okay?" she asked, stuttering along the way.

"Fine, Silvia is something wrong?" Kieran asked her.

"Well. you seem to be, uhm missing alot of..." Silvia tried to say, but couldn't find the right words.

"Missing alot of what?, are _you_ feeling okay?".

honestly, it was so simple!. so why couldn't she say it?.

Silvia looked about and found her hand mirror and grabbed it, brining it up to Kieran's face.

"I'm sorry!" she shouted.

he looked at the reflection.

truth be told, that mirror had some good work done on the surrounding metal, silver?. if it was he definitely needed to ask her who made it or at least where she got it.

but that begs the question.

"Silvia. why am i a skeleton?".


	3. chapter 3

Machine Genesis

it had been a month after kieran started living with silvia.

wanting to help out he decided to look for a job.

thankfully, adventuring was still a thing.

and currently both Kieran and Silvia where running for their lives.

the reason in question so happened to be carried on his shoulder.

a chest bursting with as much gold as the two could have shoved in there.

and what chased them so happened to be the dragon that horded said gold.

Fun times.

/3/

"Well that could have gone better".

the two had decided to spend their pay on a small meal at the local tavern which was Alive with sounds of the customers chatting and the rather loud celebration of a nearby table. the smell of food and drink were just as abundant.

"I think it went well, this is more than enough to cover the church for a year".

Kieran layed lazily on the table and moped with having to wait for his arm to grow back for what seemed like the hundredth time today.

He couldn't help but sigh in relief, the momentary second of just laying on this table was payment enough for his bizarre biology which for all of the inhuman power it granted still ached from the eight hour run that made the venture easier to finish.

"Let's do another one!" Silvia exclaimed with a sudden surge of excitement.

It seemed like life wasn't quite done with him.

/3/

Kieran's arm shot out of the gelatinous mass of the slime that, moments ago, jumped him.

As planned the monster was completely focused on an attempt of seduction which in his opinion was more like an attempt at suffocating him to death.

All while Silvia busily set to work collecting the reason why they where in a slime infested place like this.

A rare kind of fungus that grew in such places, thanks to the combined dampness, heavily dense forest canopy and magical nature the slime's shared with all monsters would come together to create a type of fungi that was sought after by healers and the few scientific minds the world over.

Kieran fruitlessly waved his arm and gurgled.

/3/

It had been a full hour and Kieran was still vomiting up the rest of the slime.

Silvia could do little but try to make the experience less embarrassing for him.

/3/

"GHHAAAAAHHHH!?".

"Is it working?, my friends say it does when they do it!" the young dragon said as she continued to...more or less stomp on his crotch.

"YOU.NEED.BETTER.FRIENDS!".

/3/

"W-well at least there won't be anymore missing shipments".

After their less than stellar success, Silvia had to drag Kieran back do to not having a working pelvis for the moment.

/3/

"This better be the last one" Kieran grumbled as the two proceeded up the mountain path.

"Sorry" Silvia laughed awkwardly "i think this will be more than enough adventuring for a while".

The job they had accepted involved dealing with a small group of monsters that had been terrorising a small town nearby.

Considering all the things he had to go through and put up with from the previous jobs, having to walk up a mountain wasn't that bad in comparison.

The two came across a cave that was average in size for a cave, two rock's the size of people where placed in such a way as to obscure the cave entrance from those traveling near it.

Kieran moved towards the boulders and with some effort was able to lift one.

"Silvia" he called her over.

"What is-" she stopped herself half way when she saw what Kieran called her over for "tracks?" looking down at the ground that was previously under the large rock was what seemed like the end of a trail from something, the boulder, being pushed here.

"Yeah, looks like We're dealing with the dangerous kind now".

"Dangerous?".

He turned to look at her, dropping the boulder casually. Silvia noticed the bulging and twitching muscles and bicep of Kierans arm becoming more laxed and normal.

"A monster that doesn't think much and rarely works with others is far less dangerous than one that can coordinate and organise" he explained.

"Which means..." he trailed off, Kieran slowly made his way to the cave entrance Silvia close by.

He stopped.

"Which means...you should stay here".

She gave him a confused look.

"Why?, I've been handling these jobs just as good as you have" she replied.

"i know... there are sometimes where i forget your not as... durable as i am. You've done alot for me that i haven't even asked for, i just don't want you to get hurt".

"So" he turned to face her.

And smiled.

"Let me do something for you".

And with that, Kieran walked into the caves maw.

Alone.

/3/

it wasn't long before he encountered some opposition.

The entrance lead to instead of a cave but a massive cavern.

And it was full of goblins.

While there was little light to illuminate the whole cavern there was enough to see the sudden shifting of Shadows.

Momentarily, Kieran's vision gave out. Everything became a blur before returning, and now he saw the two hundred strong force in front of him.

The monsters advance was slow but noticeable, already he could feel the shifting of flesh and bone in his arms as the two limbs became more undefined.

As expected of goblins their child like frames made it easy to out do them in both agility and speed, but thanks to their strength and numbers one slip up on his part could lead to more than just trouble.

Now his arms were two whip like appendages that split at the tips while from his shoulders to his biceps where covered in a silver exoskeleton like plating. The goblin closest to him moved first, lunging at him only to fall face first and then for the next moment realise suddenly her position in the cavern before bouncing off a wall unconscious and only lightly bruised.

Kieran's arm snapped back with a tug, already there where three that had sprinted they're way to him. His legs begun to shift and alter themselves becoming large, insectoid like reverse jointed limbs. the physiology of such limbs allowed for immensely strong musculature within to achieve feats of inhuman jumping ability that wouldn't be found in nature, and it was with these legs that kieran launched himself upwards.

The large claws found on the front and heel of his new feet clenched onto the rocky surface of the roof.

Crouching close to the area of rock that he was anchored to, Kieran less leaped and more launched off at the ground his whip arm's spinning around him. Both found small forms to wrap around and once landed did he start to use his two captives as impromptu flails. A force of two hundred soon dwindled to a hundred and seventy, Kieran once more crouched and jumped landing on a wall at an angle and jumped again and again and again each landing and jump faster and with more force behind it.

It was calculated with an precision only found in a machine, each jump was accompanied with the flailing of a goblin or two being thrown about the place. Most realising that they weren't on the ground halfway through their flight and spending their return to the ground incapacitated and with only light bruises and the occasionall cut from the rough landing.

Landing onto the ground Kieran rolled his shoulders and sighed as he surveyed the now body covered ground "Heh. and i thought this wou-" he was soon interrupted by the sudden arrival of a blast to his face.

"The hell!?" he quickly got to his feet. Along with a noticeable slice going straight through his head was the good amount of skin that was missing from the right half of his face, revealing the metallic skin underneath and a small amount of black muscle.

His attention was now on the person or rather monster Infront of him.

Emerging from an obvious entrance that he somehow didn't notice was a hobgoblin.

Hobgoblins where effectively just bigger, stronger and dumber goblins with a bust to match.

Though the only thing he noticed about her was the definitely magic sword she was holding.

"So, she was right" she grinned.

Slowly making her way towards him she lifted the arcane blade for another strike.

"You _are_ fun".

His wound already beginning to repair itself, he faced off with his challenger who had already set loose another magical strike from her blade. The arcane wave flew at him like a bullet.

where it not for his current limbs he would have been hit by it, now on the ceiling he glared at her. His wound was little more than a black slit on his silver skin, his arms begun to shift, warp and enlargen.

His arms where now massive limbs covered in a black jagged carapace ending in three digit claws.

Kieran let himself fall, his legs changing into bipedal limbs similar to his arms. And rushed her.

The hobgoblin sung her sword at him, again and again. Using his arms to block the ethereal waves which chipped at them taking insignificant chips of carapace.

Finally he reached her.

The monster dropped her blade.

Their hands locked.

It had become a battle of raw strength.

Kieran glared at her while her mouth grew into a grin.

"Tch, grhg!".

His limbs strained under her inhuman power, he could feel some fibres of muscle fray and begining to tear.

Her grin had become a smile, taking delight in his struggle. He pushed with more force, trying to gain ground on her.

A short burst of blue fluid escape from between plates that covered his calf.

The sound of squirming flesh and cracking bones became audible.

Another short burst came from his left forearm.

His heels dug deep into the ground, his body constantly trying to adapt something against her.

Then.

His right bicep burst.

A spray of his blue blood escaped like a raging river.

The fluid covered his face.

"Grh, Ngh!".

Then without warning.

She suddenly pressed down on his left hand.

Her fingers easily pierced through the chitin digging into the black flesh underneath.

He clenched his jaw hard, not giving fuel to her disgusting pleasure.

"Just stop it".

Kieran's assault stopped.

"It's not everyday i find someone who can keep up with me".

He looked up at her, and couldn't understand.

She was a monster, so why.

why did she look sad.

"but this... your practically tearing yourself apart".

She was a monster, what did she know about how he did things.

She let go of his hand, Kieran practically dropped down to the ground. The muscles in his arms and legs though not natural, burned. Steam was coming off of him like hes right out of a hot bath.

The hobgoblin sat down, he'd have stared her down if his spine was still working.

"... It's obvious, I'm not like other hobgoblins. Wasn't like other goblins when i was young either" she began.

The loud cracks and pops alerted Kieran to his spine being repaired.

"I was smarter than others, stronger too. Where others needed to work together i didn't, never interested in finding a husband either".

He was able to look at her, though at an awkward angle.

"After a few years i got bored and decided to get one. Never did work out like i wanted".

He regained feeling in his limbs.

"Every man i met was too weak, too frail, too slow. I kept looking, i gave up after a while".

Kieran was already healed, he shifted about into a more comfortable position.

"Then she came".

And froze.

"She told me about you. About how you could last longer, how you were stronger and how you were faster. She asked me to join her".

"And did you?".

"Well, maybe you should go asked the others past me about that" she said with a grin.

"Your...not what i expected".

"And what did you expect?".

She leaned back letting out a breath of air.

"At first i expected this...taller than life guy, y'know?. Someone who could do more than just keep up" she sighed.

"Someone. Someone who would care about for more than this" she gestured to her self.

"So, you want a 'love you for more than your body' type?".

She chuckled a bit " if that's how you put it then yes. Though sounding a little less insulting".

So, that was it.

"But, this really has been fun".

She stood up.

"If that's all you could do then I'm kinda scared at what'll happen to you if i put effort into it" she said as she went into some stretches to loosen up.

Kieran got up.

she walked over to where she dropped her sword and retrieved it.

She rested it on her shoulder and faced him.

"So. You re-".

Then, without warning.

A massive gust of wind blew past her.

Kieran was no longer infront of her.

Kieran was behind her.

She snapped around.

And saw him.

Saw him with her _arm._

Her eyes darted to her left.

 _And found no left arm._

He smiled.

"How?. How did he do that?. How did he take my arm?. That's what your thinking, right?".

His hand crushed the dismembered limb with shocking ease, the arm fell out of his grasp by the fact that he had so thoroughly crushed the joint that the bicep and forearm fell of because there was nothing strong enough left to hold them up.

"I learned. Or rather my _body_ learned".

His limbs were now slimmer and less bulky than before.

He dropped the viscera in his hand and begun to walk towards her.

Her muscles tensed, she brought her blade up. Though he could notice the small amount of sweat start to build up on her she was probably too busy thinking on her next move to care.

He stopped, he was practically close enough to touch her.

"What?, you think a little sob story is gonna change my mind?, it would perhaps..." Kieran pointed to his head "if my body didn't go and unform the parts of my brain that dealt with empathy".

She spat out a small wad of spit and blood, his arm suddenly piercing into her right side.

His arm was back at his side as quickly as it had stabbed her.

He soon found himself with her sword through his abdomen.

"How is he so fast?. Well it's all thanks to my new limb's. Thanks for that. They're capable of reaching speeds that would leave me with useless stripes of meat but thanks to you my limb's are durable enough to mostly stay intact".

She didn't listen.

Nor did he, what with his abdomen exploding and all.

It had left Kieran with a gash that separated his right shoulder all the way to the new massive hole where his abdomen should be.

"Hmm, smart. If only you did that earlier".

Right before her eyes his body was already pulling itself back together. His shoulder was almost instantaneously healed while his abdominal organs regrew before her eyes.

"Thanks for that too. Y'know, i think I'm beginning to Like you" he said still having that smile "maybe i was wrong about your kind".

Her entire left field of vision suddenly went dark, only for her to realise that Kieran had his hand on her face.

On her head.

"I wonder. What would you do if i...".

"Hmm, kill all these goblins?, no too much effort. Rip you're eye out?, no too messy. Ah, maybe".

He brought his right arm to her abdomen and formed an almost exact replica of her blade.

"I stab and blow you up?. It's definitely painful i assure you, though you seem tolerant enough of pain".

It was more than just the part of his brain that dealt with empathy that was unformed by his body, the parts that dealt with sympathy as well.

Again, Kieran's abdomen exploded though her sword seemed to not do as much now as it previously did.

It simply left a large hole in his torso. Strangely, Kieran staggered away from her clutching his wound.

He clenched his teeth as his body repaired itself, a jagged pale grey scare was now on the black chitin that had formed on his body.

"Tch" pain flared up across his body, kieran disappeared again. She tensed up as she looked around everywhere that he could possibly strike from.

She spun around and struck at the displaced air behind her.

Her sword had swung true and again found itself in kieran, whoever his own blade had found itself in her as well. The two stood there weapons sheathed in each others flesh, while the hobgoblin took sharp breath after sharp breath he simply stood there his gaze fixed upon her.

It would stay like this for a few long minutes, both not taking their eyes off the other in the slightest chance that the other would strike in the single moment of weakness.

"Hmph. Your pretty good".

A spike shot out from him.


	4. Chapter 4

Machine Genesis

His foot steps echoed throughout as he walked deeper into the cave.

Everything below Kieran's neck was covered in an insectoid like armour of black and grey chitin.

He lifted his sword and banged it against the caves wall and banged it again and again.

The newly adapted echolocation helped with traversing the almost labyrinthian structure of this place.

Eventually he found another cavern, the walls were draped by sprawling cloth's of purple, pilles of gold at their edges.

"Heh, guess she must've got her ass kicked".

Twenty of them, Amazon's.

Quickly, he threw his sword nailing one of them.

"Wh-what!?".

He rushed over, grabbing the blades grip.

Kieran ran straight into another Amazone who was able to stab skewer him with her blade, that didn't stop him from stabbing her in kind.

Repeatedly.

Kieran ripped the blade out of himself and brandished it, twirling it as he observed the rest.

One seemed arrogant or stupid enough to rush at him, swinging her club as she drew near. All the attack did was give him a milde head would and cause him to stagger for a bit, the blue blood flowed down the left side of his face. Kieran plunged his sword into her shoulder and impaled her onto his other blade.

The amazon was on the ground now, grimacing from the pain. Kieran dropped himself on her, and punched her face.

And punched again.

And again.

And again, and again, and again, and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. Punch after blood stained punch.

Her face was caked with blood and from her expression was on the verge of unconsciousness.

"I need this."

Kieran slowly moved his carapaced fingers over her horn.

Twisting them around it, he gripped it firmly the amazon grimacing.

Kieran started to pull.

She screamed out as he quickly _yanked_ the horn out of her skull.

He looked it over, still looming over the unconscious amazon.

Horn in hand he stood up, pulling his sword out of her shoulder.

And stabbing it into her head.

Two rushed him at the same time, while he was able to parry the first one's blade the second one's axe found itself in his shoulder.

Stabbing the second amazon with his sword, kieran brought her closer and stabbed her in the eye with his improvised knife.

Pulling his sword out of the amazon he stabbed her repeatedly in the torso, yanking the horn out of her eye socket and stabbing into her repeatedly.

The other amazon tackled him. Both tumbling as they grappled.

With her scream of pain it was apparent who was winning along with her leg pointing in a way that wasn't natural.

Grabbing hold of her tail kieran forcibly wrapped it around her kneck. And pulled.

Her limbs flailed as kieran strangled her to death.

Dropping the lifeless monster, kieran turned his attention to the remaining few.

The remaining amazon's rushed him at once.

Cracks, Pop's and squelches escaped his body as black shifting tentacles burst from his back.

The coiling limbs snaked to and twisted around the weapons lying around him. Forming a second sword he clashed blade's with the amazom's.

Tentacles had wrapped around an amazons leg, throwing her into the air then slamming her violently against the ground. Another tentacle brought it's sword down on her with enough force to cut her in two.

The remaining four who had battled with him met similarly gruesome fates.

Throwing aside the decapitated head, kieran advanced towards the last one. The coiling tentacles flowed through the air like water, between the weapons and the limbs it was hard to tell where one began and one ended.

"You... your much more than i expected" she said, the dark purple haired amazon rising up from her throne.

Brandishing two large swords, she matched his advance.

"Already heard it. Still don't give a shit about it."

Both swords clashed.

Sparks flew as their blades collided, throwing their swords around with brute strength that left deep gashes in the area around them.

Tentacle after tentacle was cleaved away only for tentacle after tentacle to take their place, each tentacle replacing the other progressively getting more and more blades and protective chitin.

With a shout kieran disarmed her with a upward swing, sending her blade flying. With that he swung downwards at her, the rushing blade backed by enough strength to crack open rock.

Twisting her body, the amazon roared as she thrust her remaining sword at him.

Everything seemed to slow down to him.

His blades missed her twisting form.

Her blade made it's way into his skull.

He could _feel_ it, the breaking of metallic bone, the blade sliding through flesh.

Sword in his head, kieran stumbled back before falling onto the ground. The tentacles limp, breaking down into a black fluid.

She took deep breath after deep breath as the amazon walked over and picked up her discarded sword.

She loomed over his still form.

And cut his head off.

Throwing her sword aside, she made her way back to her throne.

She leaned back, exhausted from the fight.

The cracking of groaning metal broke through the air.

Snaps and iron groans escaped his arms as they snapped up, cracking and popping as they slammed down and pushed.

The headless body pushed itself upright, tendrils of black flesh, wire's, cable's flowed out of the neck stump and snaked towards the decapitated head.

Flowing into his wound, the tendrils fused with the unflesh, wire's fused and wrapped together with other wires and cables Locked into place in the remaining parts of his neck bone.

Kieran's head was pulled towards his neck, the handle of the sword still impaling him fell to the ground.

The blade Itself was covered in veins that traveled across it underneath the steel jutting out, the metal changing from grey to black crumpling as it was pulled _into_ his head.

Snaps and pops and cracks sounded out as kieran's head was being reattached to his neck.

Plates flowed over his head, interlocking and merging together as they formed a helm. Three vertical slits cracked open all glowing red.

Now standing up, he hunched slightly. Standing there, looking at her.

His entire body was covered now, the armour seemed to be different. Less insectoid than before.

He raised his arm, his hand twitching as it warped, morphed, twisted, shifted and changed into a sword. The appendage gave off a sense of a handle but this was simply how his new hand was shaped, The guard was comprised of his two remaining fingers both curving inward.

The blade itself was as wide as an arm and had a slit running down the middle, a small window into the underneath of the various plates revealed more black flesh dotted amongst it where yellow orbs, black slits acting as pupils for them.

A large amount of the dirt underneath him was launched into the air as he jumped at her at immense speeds.

He brought his right arm down.

As it pierced her flesh, the blade separated. Each new segment of the blade whip ripping and tearing into her torso as she was bisected from shoulder to hip.

As her dismembered body fell, his sword collapsed together in a single fluid motion.

Violently throwing the throne and cloth aside revealed another passage.

The shock of being stabbed through the head along with being aware of every moment combined with the sheer pain had caused his body once more to modify and alter his brain.

But.

Even in this state, he hoped she wouldn't see him like this.


End file.
